Cleaning the registry WIN98SE

[PtBetsie]

Beyond removing temp files, cookies, etc. is there a software program that effectively and safely reviews the registry to get rid of leftover files, etc.? Regclean doesn't work in WIN98SE and I have just been using the routine maintenance program, I don't think it is really effective though.

[deddard]

Norton utilities should be ok on win 98 (although not the latest versions of norton)
see if you can pick one up from 2001/2 cheaply, and you should be ok. I haven't done an online search for a free utility for win 98, but there probably is such a beast out there.

[Quantax]

Be leery about what you get. For instance, Reg Mechanic may be good, but the one time(at least once that I remember)it came up with gillions of items, this even after I'd done a number of clean up routines with the Norton System Works' Win Doctor checkup.

Then another program out there does a "too effective" job of eliminating .dll entries. When I used it, it screwed up my printer's operation and I wound up having to call HP to get the thing working again.

[Sylvander]

Spot on Quantax.

I spent a lot of time reading about the registry and exploring it and I'm very reluctant to delete entries large-scale.

I figure that you can have 10,000 orphan entries and your PC still works [ok your registry files are bloated. Is that a big problem?], but remove just one vital entry and something vital may stop working.

If Windows then refuses to boot have you the means to restore the configuration files and do you know how to do it?
I run Win98, so I'd use scanreg /restore.

If anyone does come up with a SAFE way to do this I'd like to know about it. :)